Borrego Springs

I was packing for my trip to Borrego Springs when a company I applied to for work called with a temporary job offer. It never fails that work crops up just before going on vacation. But I surprised myself how nice it felt to be needed. I even launched into the project before a contract was signed. As it turned out, the job was easily tacked on to the end of my vacation and the location meshed in with my travel plans.But backing up to Borrego Springs - I rented a Jeep Wrangler in San Diego and drove over snow capped mountains down to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Anza is the early explorer and Borrego is the Spanish name for Big Horn Sheep. That's where Don and Jean winding up their winter stay in their Airstream trailer at a resort park. The friendliness of all the resident campers was contageous. We toured the visitor center that had spectacular cactus gardens. Evening was laid back with a beer, then a Gin and Tonic and finish with a nice cab. Next day was my jeeping initiation through a canyon that to everyone's pleasant surprise was blooming with flowers. The trip culminated at a place called Painted Canyon,aptly named. One of the guys hiked with me a short way into a Narrows where there were seven ladders to climb out of the canyon. I told him he was walking a pretty good clip for a hiking in sandals. He said "Yeah, and I left my inhaler in the jeep!" We turned around at ladder number two. Later Don reported the flower find to the park ranger for others to enjoy.

The next day I rode with one of the

guys because the trail was a little more demanding.

Here they are letting air out of the tires for better ride over boulders.

They also disconnect the stab

ilizer bar to allow the wheels to reach into gaps better.

Back in Borrego Springs,

the guy who invented Post-its commissioned a lot of metal sculptures that are placed in the desert around town - wild horses, mastadons, grape pickers, dinosaurs.

Our ways parted at a little mountain town where they feature locally grown apples. We had Dutch apple pie with cinnamon ice cream. Yum, yum.